Electrically conductive textiles are usually brought into contact with electric cables or leads by means of crimping, sewing, or gluing. However, these attachment methods often cause a thickening at the contact point which is undesirable for some applications. Such attachment methods can also create potential fatigue or stress points which can diminish the robustness or durability of the conductive textile application.
A composite material is known from DE 199 26 379, in which strands capable of soldering can be jacketed with a binder made of solder. The unique nature of the composite material, however, substantially limits the material selection of the strands.
Various conductive textiles are also known. For example, “Electronic textiles: A platform for pervasive computing,” MARCULESCU, Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 91, No. 12, December 2003, and “Enabling technologies for disappearing electronics in smart textiles,” Jung et al., ISSCC 2003/Session 221TD: Embedded Technologies/Paper 22.1/2003 IEEE, disclose textiles with integrated metallic wires. The metallic wires act as the connection leads for electronic circuits embedded into the textiles. These metal strands are contacted by means of soldering. In the process, however, the textile carrier structure is destroyed in the surrounding area before or during the soldering process.
Other known heating elements have similar drawbacks in terms of contact attachment or limited material selection for the textile material. For example, DE 103 19 048 discloses a heating element made of carbon fibers or metal structures, in which soldering is disclosed as a technical possibility for joining the contacts. In this case, however, a limitation of the material selection also exists.
Metallic coatings applied on conductive textiles are often extremely thin, such as for reasons of costs, weight, or flexibility (i.e. smaller than 1 μm). In such a case, the conductive textiles can no longer be sufficiently contacted by means of a solder connection to insure the integrity of the material and durability of the connection.
Therefore, a demand exists for a reliable and flat connection method, the application possibility of which is not limited to massive metals.